Planet Explorers is an open world sandbox adventure RPG game set on a distant planet. The game uses a new OpenCL calculated voxel system to allow players to change the terrain in any way, create new objects such as weapons, vehicles, objects, and do it anywhere.

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Early Access Game

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What the developers have to say:

“Planet Explorers is an open world RPG for its single player mode, as in there's a storyline with an ending. The game is in alpha, there will be bugs and strange things that we can't explain. Since it's an RPG, there will be more bugs than other games of the voxel type. Also due to the RPG nature, each main update will be spaced by about a month. But due to the decent size of our team, each update will contain a lot of content. We do listen very closely to our players, so you will have an opportunity to impact the direction of the game.”

February 15

– Added the tutorial section of the Epiphany ship (can access via main menu)
– Added 4 new types of clothing
– Added several new buildings in Adventure mode
– Added new landscape features to Adventure mode
– Added the option to extend height to 512m in Adventure mode
– Tweaked town formation in Adventure mode

Of course, as always, we’ll try to fix and tweak any minor bugs in the coming days.

February 7

There are a lot of things that still need work in the Planet Explorers alpha, but I think going into a0.9, we all knew that we needed to upgrade the combat system dramatically. We started with the animation and went from there. Pretty much all the key animations have been changed, now the player character will have different animations for hit, run, dash, different weapon types (staff, crossbow, dual wield, etc.), and much more. We've also included IK and ragdoll animations to give variety to all the different animation sets. We tried to make it so that the player isn't fighting with the controls. One thing we're making optional is the ability to attack where the player clicks.

On the AI side, we rewrote/modified the entire behavior tree, plus lots of new animations as well. We want the AI to feel smarter, to be able to dodge swords and bullets, to engage the player more naturally instead of always facing the player and throwing different attacks at a percentage rate as before. We also added in IK hit detection so that each hit from the player generates a visual response from the body of the AI.

Finally, we wanted the combat to have more oomph. Players getting hit by large attacks will fly a long way. Players getting hit with a smaller attack will show reaction from the part of the body that's been hit. We're still in the progress of modifying the camera and the UI so that they show a corresponding reaction with each hit, we'll show off these as they come online. With all of that added together, we hope the combat will become a more satisfying experience for everyone.

About This Game

In Planet Explorers, it is the year 2287, one of the first colony ships sent out by Earth arrives at the planet Maria, in the Epsilon Indi Star System. During its landing sequence, something appears in front of the massive ship that causes it to lose control and crash into the planet. Some of the colonists survive in lifeboats, but what they find is an unforgiving land filled with creatures ready to outlast the visitors from Earth. Now the survivors must explorer, gather, build, create, fight, and ultimately, build a new home.

Game Modes

Planet Explorers will feature single and multiplayer modes.

In single player there are 3 distinct selections

Story Mode – Story mode is the main meat and bones of the game, it is the action-adventure-rpg-somewhat-4X segment, offering npcs, missions, colony building, farming, ranching, training, diplomacy, and of course, a storyline that you can follow or ignore. This story features a 17X8km world map with many unique character, landscapes, biomes, locations, and over 100 types of potential enemies. Even though we’ve made it seem like a very action oriented game in the trailers, in reality, players can choose to not fight so much as to just plant a farm, make some food, keep the colonists alive, negotiate with the sentient aliens, and defend the perimeter from the local life forms. That can still eventually arrive at the ending. And yes, there is an ending.

Adventure Mode – This mode is based on a procedural map generated from a seed. Currently, it comes in a 40X40 kilometer map. Players will be able to complete random missions, defeat bosses, and explore different landscapes in the mode and eventually be able to setup conditions that they want to play (such as tower defense or attack an alien camp). This mode will also feature survival gameplay. The randomization in this mode will eventually pull in player made objects and locations so that a world will always feature something new and unique.

Build Mode – In this mode, there are no enemies and an infinite amount of building material. It also currently comes in a 40X40km map. Players will be able to build whatever they want in this mode, including everything in the Creations Editor. Think of this as the perfect testing ground to test everything you build. Or…it’s your place to build your garden without ever worrying about the pesky aliens.

Multiplayer allows Local Area Network and player hosted servers. It features several modes but some are still on the drawing board or going through technical trials so the final result is still in flux. Players playing multiplayer should be able to bring at least one of their created objects into multiplayer games, be it a sword, gun, or vehicle.

Coop – Coop comes in many selections, such as adventure mode, tower defense mode, build mode, etc. This is pretty much an open world sandbox with a max of 32 players (this number still needs to be stress tested).

Versus – This mode allows teams of up to 16 players to battle against 16 players from another team. We allow full terrain manipulation in this mode. Currently, it's a point based system where one team wins if they reach a certain point level based on kills, built objects, resources mined, etc.

Planet explorers is a game unlike any other i have played recently. I guess you could classify it as an open world action adventure RPG on an alien planet.

Graphics

Amazingly rendered environments gives the planet a feel like youre actually exploring a whole other world. Weird plants wave in the wind. Large ominous trees loom in the distance. Dense forests full of vegetation to explore. 8/10

Gameplay

Gameplay comes in different forms. Planet explorers uses what is called an OpenCL voxel system that allows you to alter all terrain. dig a hole the hole appears. cut down a tree, and its gone. there are threee seperate forms of gameplay. Story mode tells the tale of a man that has crash landed on a mysterious planet and is sent to explore it. It sets the general arc of everything and acts a sort of tutorial for the other modes. Adventure mode allows you to just set parameters and explore to your hearts content with "towns" and npcs already in place where you can buy and sell your items. Multiplayer allows you to join a server and go explore, build structures, and co-op the games content. the Crafting system is where the game really shines. You can build pretty much anything you want, cars, planes, helicopters, hang gliders, guns, and many other things. over all a great gameplay experience. 8/10

Overall opinion

Still in early access at this point and it shows. I have had multiple issues with the MP system but that is all really. So far A solid title and definitly worth a buy in my opinion. 8/10

However, lacks some depth in 'purpose' (what is your 'goal' in the game) and gathering of resources is very clunky and slow.

Has a lot of potential and worth checking out, but seriously, don'tbe one of those 'I just bought an Early Access game and hated it, wtf!' people. Watch some videos, check out reviews, and if you're just not interested in 'wasting money' supporting a game that isn't finished yet, buy it on sale or don't get it.

I don't normally do reviews because i suck at them, so to benefit everyone including myself i'll keep this short...

Buy this game, no really.

An alien chased me, so i made a sword with a smileyface on it and wacked him over the head with it.An alien chased me, so i made a gun with a smileyface on it and shot him in the head with it.An alien chased me, so i made a 30.000 ton aircraftcarrier with a smileyface on it and crashlanded on his head with it...

Put simply: this is one of the most promising sci-fi sandbox games currently on Steam. The graphics are bright, clean, and attractive, and the gameplay is largely intuitive. I find the vehicle building system to be a bit clunky, but the irritation is minor. I have sunk a fair amount of time into this game and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I love building long-distance rail networks to connect interesting points on the map, and I love the random alien encounters!

If you're into early-access games and like the idea of supporting indie game devs, then I'd suggest picking this game up.

Monster Hunter+Tomb Rider+The Sims+Harvest Moon in sci fi settings!you can hunt, surviving, farming, creating a brand new props and vehicles!live your creativity to the fullest, this game also stimulate your imagination and adventurous feelings.

very promising, you won't regret buy it even it's still on alpha!

note: i made this review without thinking about how many the errors / ctd i got. still enjoyable as the game itself has a high repeatable game factors, you won't get bored.you can try multiplayer too for surviving together or hunt each others.

last : though im not really a fanatics of futuristic setting, im pleased with the role playing concept, esp building colonies![Hope in the future there's a spousal system too lol].

Ever play a voxel sandbox game and think, "wow this would be great with vehicles", yet those vehicles never really come?Well, dont worry. Here you build it according to YOUR IMAGINATION. Although learning how to build one to function well does take some time, you can literally build any kind of vehicle; aircraft, boat or land vehicle, it's your choice. Not to mention the same can be done with weaponry: guns, swords and shields all able to be built from scratch by YOU. The creatures come right out of Spore, much of the equipment is fairly original (minus the standard pickaxe, shovel and axe that can be made stronger with better materials), and although the combat is slightly clunky, devs are remaking combat animations to be more comfortable as i write this review, and the combat isnt even terrible right now; actually, it's not even bad. If you can handle Minecraft combat, this is twenty steps upward and still improving so it's hardly even a bother.

All I have left to say is, why are you still reading this review? GO BUY THIS GAME, and add me so we can play together!! :D

There are many sandbox games popping up all over Steam, nearly all of them still in Early Access, but by far this game takes the lead.

Most of the Sandbox Early Access games on Steam are missing lots of content and taking months to be updated. But Pathea continues to update this game and keep all users up-to-date with all features coming to the game.

If you are going to buy any Sandbox game, this one will be your best choice.

Easier and faster building, limited-free roam style building (you can leave your body for a short distance), you can save templates!!! Imagine building a tower, build a base of 8x8, highlight it-save and now its 8x8x500. (10 seconds)You can paint your blocks- in game, create the color.You can create weapons or other items from scratch!Build helicopters and fly them around. Explore a beautiful landscape.

I HIGHLY recommend checking this game out. Story is a work in progress- all about the adventure mode unless you are happy to look to for directions out-side of the game.

Are you the creative and exploratory type? This is THE game for you.

Mining has a natural feel to it as the blocks are not square. Sometimes I will dig to far if i put too much 'effort' into it.

Planet Explorers and Starbound are easily my now favorite pre-release games I have ever purchased. Thank you to the game makers.

THE ONLY suggestion i have: rpg elements to it. But honestly, its really not that important and can be easily modded in.

When I first described this game to my friends. I said it was a cross between Skyrim, Monster Hunter, and Minecraft. (Just to use popular examples.) With that, we all agreed that I was pretty correct. For an open world, voxel-based game where you hunt huge-♥♥♥ monsters sounds pretty damn amazing. And amazing is what this game is. I definitely recommend getting this to accompany the other couple of hundred games in everyone's steam libraries.

I've purchased and played a handful of Early Access games... Planet Explorers is an AMAZING game. I've been playing the story mode... the writing itself and dialogue is nothing spectacular - but the game mechanics and concepts are really enjoyable for anyone that likes the ability to create, and build within a game (I love the colony aspect of the game as well as the crafting - crafting is actually practical... I think there may need to be some balancing tweaks with regards to resource costs etc., but the overall concepts are extremely ambitious and this game actually looks like it is going to pull it off. As an Early Access game - it already is very much playable - and I'm really happy with this purchase. I can't wait to see what the final product looks like - and the devs seem to be making regular updates, so it is a win-win for everyone (they get some funding and I get to enjoy an awesome game NOW - and LATER).

Ive done my waiting! 4 Years! And still we dont get a decent successor of minecraft!

Planet Explorers has the first engine which look decent. Other than other Unity voxel games it goes a new way, away from the block shaped minecraft clone worlds.

What is the engine capable of?- generating a very nice looking 3D environment, with rivers, lakes, hills, mountains and endless oceans. A whole map can be 40x40km, thats not even close to be as big as a minecraft world, but still big enough to satisfy a great number of players.- having a lot of free roaming animals, that even work in groups, defend each other or fight other species.- having building sized boss enemis, with a great amount of different attacks (I mean seriously building sized, they are ♥♥♥♥ing huge).- complete voxel based 3D mapping. You can dig through every mountain for ressources, still the areas arent made of simple cubes, also you dont have a restriction of placing objects in a square system. And sometimes you can find gigantic caves, that even have lakes and rivers inside of them, big enough to fly through them with helicopters.- oh yeah, the game also has vehicles and guns. And the best part is: You can build them all by yourself (this would be maybe the current core element of the game)- A colony system with real working NPCs like a Real Time Strategy Game

What are the cons?- lack of actual exploring stuff- lack of balance (if you start on a gold and iron / aluminium spot, you can make your end equip in 30 minutes, or you die over and over again, because there is an enemy alien camp right ahead and constantly raiding you)- from patch to patch fluctuating between super stable and crashing every 15 minutes- you need a high end PC- you need to be very creative in crafting, or you are bound to other players workshop stuff- overpowering open world bosses are way to easy- sometimes annoying gamebreaking bugs like selfkill with a melee weapon- lack of content to do

The main course:

Crafting:The game comes with a complex editor, that allows the player to design his own guns, swords, shields, vehicles, boats and helicopters. It also allowes to craft free style objects without deeper purpose, that can be used as furniture, from a simple chair to a laptop with detailed screen.

Being awesome as it is, the editor doesnt glance with user friendlyness. Even making a corner or edge or diagonal structures can be a pain, creating round, sharp, beautiful looking or complex filigrane objects are only possible by...I dont know...havent figured it out jet. And the other players arent really helpful in answering this question.Also using material for your objects changes its abilitys. Every ressource has stability and weight, with aluminium being the most useful ressource, due to its strength and low weight. Creating a good looking weapon and also giving it good stats can be a painful balance act. For example I figured out, that a strong gun should have 40 aluminium as building costs. That way it would have 170 damage and exactly 100% accuracy. Every try of building it bigger would decrease the accuracy under 100% so that the gun wont shoot a straight line anymore.Swords are even worse because I still havent figured out, how to craft sharp blade structures with the editor. But the damage of the blade is calculated from the size of the weapon and how sharp the front is. I have found a workaround, but I dont think this is the way the game should be used.

Building vehicles is awesome, but currently the game restricts you, wherever it can. You are not allowed to use every vehicle part for every type of vehicle. You have restrictions of maximal parts of one type. I dont know if that is supposed to be some sort of balancing...For example you can use big thrusters instead of rotors for your helicopters, but you cant use those thrusters in other vehicle types. Yeah, maybe it doesnt work this way, but...why do I also cant use the helicopter energy cells on ground vehicles? I can use them on boats, why not in a car? That way, a tank rapitly runs out of fuel and ammo and isnt capable of doing long range scouting + fighting great amounts of enemys.

All in all you still can do a lot with the editor. More options are already announced (armor crafting).

Colony:While in minecraft you only build houses to feel happy (and be save at night), here you can build up a functional colony, with defence systems, factorys and farming. Also you are able to recruit NPCs to work for you. This currently only works in Singleplayer.

All in all Planet Explorers is a decent try of a open world sandbox, where you finally literally can do, what you want. I hope they wont let us down.

I can't stop wondering how they accomplished so much in a single game. A masterpiece of atmosphere, coding, design, and gameplay. It's like Minecraft but better in every way and somehow manages to run smoother too. Planet Explorer = Persistant mind blown. BUY THIS GAME NOW!

P.E. still needs a lot of polishing, but I think the game is, even for Early Access, at a point that it can be very fun and is playable, which compared to other Early Access games is saying something. The downsides start to pile up when you look at multiplayer, which honestly is pretty damn lackluster, as well as a HORRIBLE mess for server admins, and personally I bought this game to play with friends, not by myself.

The creation and sharing system is by and far the strongest plus for this game, it's fairly easy to make things that look and perform well, and even better that you can spend more time and effort to make something that mimics something from real-life, another game, book, anything. Single-player and the story-mode are fantastic, and paced well, it allows you to learn the game at a fairly brisk pace without swamping you with all the extras and nuances to the game and others like it. However, multiplayer is a bit of a different beast, and the main reason I can't reccommend the title.

My first issue with multiplayer is that a large chunk of the game is inaccessable. All the stuff is still THERE, buildable, and the like, but it doesn't actually DO anything, because a few other bits and pieces are not buildable, so essentially you waste a lot of resources getting to what would have normally been considered the mid-game from a single player standpoint, which is establishing a colony. Essentially, multiplayer in its current state is adventuring and roaming around in whatever vehicle you may whip up, fighting the bosses and building houses that house nothing but yourself. Which, if this is your cup-of-tea, you would love multiplayer as it is now.

From an admin perspective, you may as well just be another player. Your UI is not changed save the ability to kick and ban players from the server - but only if they are online at the same time as you - there is no server log of players actions, any way to report bad players or similar functions. You need to rely on a 3rd party resource such as a forum to get this across and *hope* an admin is online at the same time as the offender. Not to mention, there is not console for admins. If the server bugs out, as it frequently does due to being Early Access and people lose things, well, tough ♥♥♥♥. The developers at Pathea don't agree that admins should have the power to spawn anything, it exists, just not for anyone who isn't a game dev: http://board.pathea.net/index.php?topic=391.0

IMO: that's the stupidest excuse I've ever seen. as it boils down to something akin to 'We can't trust you with the console' which is silly. If players don't like how an admin operates their server, they'll look for a different one.

At this stage in the Alpha, I DO enjoy the game as a single player experience, as the game is decently polished in that regard, but if you are looking to buy this more for a multiplayer focus, wait until it is further polished.

EDIT: It is worth noting that the main site, where the developers post updates has been hacked several times in the past month, so the forum link may be inaccessable. Not entirely the developers fault, but a show that Pathea is a bit rough-on-the-rails and slow in development in part due to their attention being elsewhere. Prior to the hacking, development was still pretty slow, but they maintain contact with early-adopters, which I see as a plus.

As expected, Planet Explorers is a work in progress, and aside from the bugs, what's there could easily be a stand-alone game. The number of hours of playtime I have enjoyed is staggering when compared to most AAA titles, so I consider it money well spent.

That said, the game is very rough around the edges, so if you are the type to get frustrated easily by bugs, glitches, and terrible ally pathfinding, you might want to give the game some time to mature. I lost count of how many times I arrived at a quest destination after a long journey, only to realize that the quest NPC(s) was nowhere to be found. Most of the time, retracing my steps would lead me to said NPC(s) running mindlessly into a tree or rock, which I would have to destroy to snap them out of their strange trance. Occasionally, they would get stuck on nothing. Occasionally, I would get stuck on nothing, too. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

But if you can tolerate typical early access issues during early access, I think you will find the story is quite atypical--in a good way--for this sort of game, and the city building is shaping up to be something special. It isn't quite there yet, but Planet Explorers has tons of quests, tons of dialog, and tons of ways to utilize and/or manage your colony. The voxel system itself is pretty flexible, and once you get used to it (which does take some time) the in-game editor is surprisingly easy to use. You can make decorations, equipments, and even vehicles.

I honestly have no idea why this game gets such great reviews. It's an Early Access game, but the last time I saw it was a year ago. To say it's improved would be a gross overstatement.

First off, optimization sucks. I have a rig that can run most AAA games with ease on full. I've tried all of the rendering options, and no matter what I do, the game absolutely slows to a 10 fps crawl even when I'm the only living thing on a small, barren island. It's not like the game looks good or anything, it's pretty basic.

The world generation is terrible and very frequently I've seen trees and boulders sticking out of the sides of islands. Along with that I've fallen out of the game world twice in 20 minutes.

The UI is clunky and the controls are terrible. It gives you the illusion of having two control schemes only for one to just flat out not work and you're forced to work with its default awful WoW-type interface that tries to be both an MMO and Minecraft but is bad at both. The animations are buggy and I've frequently been moonwalking underwater. Chatting with other players is difficult and a huge pain. Some hotkeys, like holstering your item, just flat out don't work. Also, the HUD is useless in informing you if you've taken any damage or are undergoing any effects.

Honestly, I haven't gotten far into the game, only an hour or so with half in SP and half in MP, but I feel like I've played all I need to know that this game's not worth it, at least not right now.

Say all you want about how it's an Early Access game, but the truth of the matter is, at the time of this writing, from what I've played, this game barely passes as an alpha. It's riddled with bugs, is unpolished as hell, and has quality worse than most free games out there. I came in expecting a 3D Starbound sandbox and got just another stagnant, buggy as hell Early Access game. Don't buy it.

Absolutely love this game - even at the lowest graphic settings the world is breathtaking.Once you get the hang of the controls they are fairly intuitive - the build function and ability to make your own custom objects and vehicles is a big plus too.The wide range of biomes and almost complete destructibility of the world increases the 'real feel' of the game, and the crafting system (replicator) is one of the best I've seen yet.Only downside possibly is that it is very graphic intensive - I have a fairly high spec mac and i have the graphics set to their lowest setting. It is a bit buggy but I would consider a must have for anyone who likes a good sandbox adventure game and is looking for high customisability.